groff_man - groff `man' macros to support generation of man pages
groff -man [ options... ] [ files... ]
groff -m man [ options... ] [ files... ]
The man macros used to generate man pages with groff
were written by James Clark. This document provides a brief summary of the use
of each macro in that package.
The man macros understand the following command line options (which
define various registers).
- -rcR=1
- This option (the default if in nroff mode) will create a single, very long
page instead of multiple pages. Say -rcR=0 to disable it.
- -rC1
- If more than one manual page is given on the command line, number the
pages continuously, rather than starting each at 1.
- -rD1
- Double-sided printing. Footers for even and odd pages are formatted
differently.
- -rFT=dist
- Set distance of the footer relative to the bottom of the page if negative
or relative to the top if positive. The default is -0.5i.
- -rHY=flags
- Set hyphenation flags. Possible values are 1 to hyphenate without
restrictions, 2 to not hyphenate the last word on a page,
4 to not hyphenate the last two characters of a word, and
8 to not hyphenate the first two characters of a word. These values
are additive; the default is 14.
- -rIN=width
- Set body text indentation to width. The default is 7n for
nroff, 7.2n for troff. For nroff, this value should
always be an integer multiple of unit `n' to get consistent
indentation.
- -rLL=line-length
- Set line length. If this option is not given, the line length is set to
respect any value set by a prior `.ll' request, (which must be in
effect when the `.TH' macro is invoked), if this differs from the built-in
default for the formatter; otherwise it defaults to 78n in nroff
mode and 6.5i in troff mode.
- Note that the use of a `.ll' request to initialize the line length is
supported for backward compatibility with some versions of the man
program; direct initialization of the `LL' register should always
be preferred to the use of such a request. In particular, note that a
`.ll 65n' request will not preserve the normal nroff
default line length, (the man default initialization to 78n will
prevail), whereas, the `-rLL=65n' option, or an equivalent
`.nr LL 65n' request preceding the use of the `TH' macro,
will set a line length of 65n.
- -rLT=title-length
- Set title length. If this option is not given, the title length defaults
to the line length.
- -rPnnn
- Enumeration of pages will start with nnn rather than
with 1.
- -rSxx
- Base document font size is xx points (xx can be 10, 11,
or 12) rather than 10 points.
- -rSN=width
- Set sub-subheading indentation to width. The default is 3n.
- -rXnnn
- After page nnn, number pages as nnna, nnnb,
nnnc, etc. For example, the option `-rX2' will produce the
following page numbers: 1, 2, 2a, 2b, 2c, etc.
This section describes the available macros for manual pages. For further
customization, put additional macros and requests into the file
man.local which will be loaded immediately after the man
package.
- .TH title section [extra1] [extra2]
[extra3]
- Set the title of the n page to title and the section
to section, which must take on a value between 1 and 8. The
value section may also have a string appended, e.g. `.pm', to
indicate a specific subsection of the man pages. Both
title and section are positioned at the left and right in
the header line (with section in parentheses immediately appended
to title. extra1 will be positioned in the middle of the
footer line. extra2 will be positioned at the left in the footer
line (or at the left on even pages and at the right on odd pages if
double-sided printing is active). extra3 is centered in the header
line.
- For HTML output, headers and footers are completely supressed.
- Additionally, this macro starts a new page; the new line number
is 1 again (except if the `-rC1' option is given on the command
line) -- this feature is intended only for formatting multiple
man pages; a single man page should contain
exactly one TH macro at the beginning of the file.
- .SH [text for a heading]
- Set up an unnumbered section heading sticking out to the left. Prints out
all the text following SH up to the end of the line (or the text in
the next input line if there is no argument to SH) in bold face (or
the font specified by the string HF), one size larger than the base
document size. Additionally, the left margin and the indentation for the
following text is reset to the default values.
- .SS [text for a heading]
- Set up a secondary, unnumbered section heading. Prints out all the text
following SS up to the end of the line (or the text in the next
input line if there is no argument to SS) in bold face (or the font
specified by the string HF), at the same size as the base document
size. Additionally, the left margin and the indentation for the following
text is reset to the default values.
- .TP [nnn]
- Set up an indented paragraph with label. The indentation is set to
nnn if that argument is supplied (the default unit is `n' if
omitted), otherwise it is set to the previous indentation value specified
with TP, IP, or HP (or to the default value if none
of them have been used yet).
- The first input line of text following this macro is interpreted as a
string to be printed flush-left, as it is appropriate for a label. It is
not interpreted as part of a paragraph, so there is no attempt to fill the
first line with text from the following input lines. Nevertheless, if the
label is not as wide as the indentation the paragraph starts at the same
line (but indented), continuing on the following lines. If the label is
wider than the indentation the descriptive part of the paragraph begins on
the line following the label, entirely indented. Note that neither font
shape nor font size of the label is set to a default value; on the other
hand, the rest of the text will have default font settings.
- The TP macro is the macro used for the explanations you are just
reading.
- .LP
- .PP
- .P
- These macros are mutual aliases. Any of them causes a line break at the
current position, followed by a vertical space downwards by the amount
specified by the PD macro. The font size and shape are reset to the
default value (10pt resp. Roman). Finally, the current left margin and the
indentation are restored.
- .IP [designator] [nnn]
- Set up an indented paragraph, using designator as a tag to mark its
beginning. The indentation is set to nnn if that argument is
supplied (the default unit is `n' if omitted), otherwise it is set to the
previous indentation value specified with TP, IP, or
HP (or to the default value if none of them have been used yet).
Font size and face of the paragraph (but not the designator) are reset to
its default values.
- To start an indented paragraph with a particular indentation but without a
designator, use `""' (two doublequotes) as the second
argument.
- For example, the following paragraphs were all set up with bullets as the
designator, using `.IP \(bu 4'. The whole block has been
enclosed with `.RS' and `.RE' to set the left margin temporarily to the
current indentation value.
- IP is one of the three macros used in the man package to
format lists.
- HP is another. This macro produces a paragraph with a left hanging
indentation.
- TP is another. This macro produces an unindented label followed by
an indented paragraph.
- .HP [nnn]
- Set up a paragraph with hanging left indentation. The indentation is set
to nnn if that argument is supplied (the default unit is `n' if
omitted), otherwise it is set to the previous indentation value specified
with TP, IP, or HP (or to the default value if none
of them have been used yet). Font size and face are reset to its default
values. The following paragraph illustrates the effect of this macro with
hanging indentation set to 4 (enclosed by .RS and .RE
to set the left margin temporarily to the current indentation):
This is a paragraph following an invocation of the HP
macro. As you can see, it produces a paragraph where all lines but the first
are indented.
- .RS [nnn]
- This macro moves the left margin to the right by the value nnn if
specified (default unit is `n'); otherwise it is set to the previous
indentation value specified with TP, IP, or HP (or to
the default value if none of them have been used yet). The indentation
value is then set to the default.
- Calls to the RS macro can be nested.
- .RE [nnn]
- This macro moves the left margin back to level nnn, restoring the
previous left margin. If no argument is given, it moves one level back.
The first level (i.e., no call to RS yet) has number 1, and
each call to RS increases the level by 1.
To summarize, the following macros cause a line break with the
insertion of vertical space (which amount can be changed with the PD
macro): SH, SS, TP, LP (PP, P),
IP, and HP. The macros RS and RE also cause a
break but no insertion of vertical space.
The standard font is Roman; the default text size is 10 point.
- .SM [text]
- Causes the text on the same line or the text on the next input line to
appear in a font that is one point size smaller than the default
font.
- .SB [text]
- Causes the text on the same line or the text on the next input line to
appear in boldface font, one point size smaller than the default
font.
- .BI text
- Causes text on the same line to appear alternately in bold face and
italic. The text must be on the same line as the macro call. Thus
- .BI this "word and" that
would cause `this' and `that' to appear in bold face, while `word
and' appears in italics.
- .IB text
- Causes text to appear alternately in italic and bold face. The text must
be on the same line as the macro call.
- .RI text
- Causes text on the same line to appear alternately in roman and italic.
The text must be on the same line as the macro call.
- .IR text
- Causes text on the same line to appear alternately in italic and roman.
The text must be on the same line as the macro call.
- .BR text
- Causes text on the same line to appear alternately in bold face and roman.
The text must be on the same line as the macro call.
- .RB text
- Causes text on the same line to appear alternately in roman and bold face.
The text must be on the same line as the macro call.
- .B [text]
- Causes text to appear in bold face. If no text is present on the
line where the macro is called the text of the next input line appears in
bold face.
- .I [text]
- Causes text to appear in italic. If no text is present on the line
where the macro is called the text of the next input line appears in
italic.
The default indentation is 7.2n in troff mode and 7n in nroff mode except for
grohtml which ignores indentation.
- .DT
- Set tabs every 0.5 inches. Since this macro is always called during a
TH request, it makes sense to call it only if the tab positions
have been changed.
- .PD [nnn]
- Adjust the empty space before a new paragraph or section. The optional
argument gives the amount of space (default unit is `v'); without
parameter, the value is reset to its default value (1 line in nroff
mode, 0.4v otherwise). This affects the macros SH,
SS, TP, LP (resp. PP and P), IP,
and HP.
- .AT [system [release]]
- Alter the footer for use with AT&T
man pages. This command exists only for compatibility; don't
use it. See the groff info manual for more.
- .UC [version]
- Alter the footer for use with BSD
man pages. This command exists only for compatibility; don't
use it. See the groff info manual for more.
- .PT
- Print the header string. Redefine this macro to get control of the
header.
- .BT
- Print the footer string. Redefine this macro to get control of the
footer.
The following strings are defined:
- \*S
- Switch back to the default font size.
- \*R
- The `registered' sign.
- \*(Tm
- The `trademark' sign.
- \*(lq
- \*(rq
- Left and right quote. This is equal to `\(lq' and `\(rq',
respectively.
- \*(HF
- The typeface used to print headings and subheadings. The default is
`B'.
If a preprocessor like tbl or eqn is needed, it has
become usage to make the first line of the man page look like
this:
.\" word
Note the single space character after the double quote.
word consists of letters for the needed preprocessors: `e' for
eqn, `r' for refer, and `t' for tbl. Modern
implementations of the man program read this first line and
automatically call the right preprocessor(s).
- man.tmac
- an.tmac
- These are wrapper files to call andoc.tmac.
- andoc.tmac
- This file checks whether the man macros or the mdoc package
should be used.
- an-old.tmac
- All man macros are contained in this file.
- man.local
- Local changes and customizations should be put into this file.
Since the man macros consist of groups of groff requests, one can,
in principle, supplement the functionality of the man macros with
individual groff requests where necessary. See the groff info
pages for a complete reference of all requests.
tbl(1), eqn(1), refer(1), man(1),
man(7),
This manual page was originally written for the Debian GNU/Linux system by Susan
G. Kleinmann <sgk@debian.org>, corrected and updated by Werner Lemberg
<wl@gnu.org>, and is now part of the GNU troff distribution.